Hot Augmented Reality News Posts

News: Is Magic Leap's Virtual Reality Demo Video Too Good to Be True?

Magic Leap, the virtual-reality software group backed by Google, just released a teaser video on their YouTube channel. In a word, it's amazing.

News: Windows 10 Will Be a Free Upgrade with "Windows Holographic" on the Horizon

Microsoft dropped a couple of huge bombs at their Windows 10 event Wednesday afternoon. Free operating systems and holographic glasses? This must be a Sci-Fi novel or a Hollywood blockbuster, because it reeks of fiction.

How To: Translate Foreign Text Live in Real Time Using Your Smartphone

Early last year, Google purchased Quest Visual, acquiring the immensely popular augmented reality translator app Word Lens in the process. While Google did put the feature on the Google Glass, they spoke more about implementing Word Lens into their Translate app sometime in the future.

How To: Android + Drive Assist = Augmented Reality Goodness for Your Car

While texting and driving may get you a ticket, there are still a ton of uses for your phone in your car, music and navigation just to name a couple. Every Android device comes with access to GPS and traffic updates, but none of those apps really have your back in real-time.

How To: Change the Color of an Object Before Taking the Photo with Your HTC One

Aside from the most basic functions, most of us are pretty useless when it comes to Photoshop. Yes, we can all add filters, but who wants to see everything in black-and-white or sepia? Why not change a sunflower blue, your hair pink, or your lips purple—without having to spend hours with editing software.

News: This May Be the Cutest Way to Get Directions Ever

Have you ever looked down to your phone and said "This GPS app works well, but why isn't it cuter?" Well, you're in luck! Tokyo's Sunrise Aquarium has what might be the cutest way to navigate to their facility—just follow the penguins!

News: We Went to the Google Glass Film Festival—Don't Expect Glass-Made Movies Anytime Soon

It was a chilly but otherwise beautiful night at YouTube Spaces LA—food trucks, ping pong, a photo booth, and the chance to view film school projects created completely with Glass. About a year ago, the Glass Creative Partnership was formed to explore how Glass could be used in filmmaking, with partnerships spanning from the American Film Institute to CalArts and UCLA. On July 16, 2014, the products of that partnership were screened under the Southern California night sky. Three films were sh...

How To: Use Notification Glance on Google Glass

You may not have noticed it, but Google snuck a new feature into Glass recently. Called Notification Glance, this feature lets you view new notifications by simply looking up at the screen.

How To: Mod Google Glass to Work with Your Prescription Frames

A creative Google Glass Explorer has solved a problem for prescription glasses wearers, as he modded his pair to work with his actual prescription set of glasses.

News: Daily Show Highlights Public Perception of Glass Explorers

They say that behind every joke is a half-truth. If that adage itself contains a grain of verity, the Daily Show's satirical Glass piece should raise a few eyebrows amongst the Glass Explorer community.

Practical & Silly: 3D Printed Accessories for Google Glass

Last year, Todd Blatt ran a Kickstarter campaign to make 3D-printed accessories for Google Glass, and has turned it into a company: GlassKap.

News: Google Just Acquired Instant Translator Word Lens—All Language Packs Free for a Limited Time

According to a statement on its website, Quest Visual, the company behind the highly-regarded live translation app Word Lens, has been purchased by Google. This news has ripple effects across both the Android and iOS platforms, as it is likely Word Lens will be discontinued in the near future in favor of incorporating the technology into Google's own Translate app. For now, however, Quest Visual has made all Word Lens language packs available for free in celebration of their new deal with Goo...

How To: New Update Adds Big Changes to MyGlass App

Google has updated the MyGlass application for Android, fixing several bugs, redesigning the user interface, and including a feature to allow Explorers to share Google Maps locations from their device to their Glass. If you haven't updated yet, do so now, then follow along as we go through it. Redesigned User Interface

Join the Party: Now Anyone Can Become a Glass Explorer

Update: April 24, 2014 Looks the the one day availability was a precursor to a wider launch, as now anyone can buy a pair of the Glass Explorer Edition without needing an invite. Check out Google's Glass Shop for some easy ordering, still with the $1500 price tag.

News: Doctor Says Google Glass Saved His Patient's Life

There's been a lot of discussion lately about the practical uses of Google Glass. Sure, you can use them for translating text instantly or further engraining yourself in social media, but how about saving someone's life? That's precisely what Dr. Steven Horng of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has says happened with a recent patient of his. After launching a Google Glass pilot program late last year, the device was seen as a critical factor in saving the life of a patient in January.

News: Google Adds Serious Style to Glass with New Partnership

They may not be the coolest looking things in the world, but Google is addressing some of the shortcomings of its Glass hardware by announcing a partnership with Luxottica Group. The company, with over 5000 retail stores in the US, has a strong portfolio of brands under its belt, including Amette, Persol, Ray-Ban, and Vogue. And for this Glass Explorer, the news is welcomed with open arms. Admittedly, these bad boys have come a long way over the past couple of years, just take a look at the i...

How To: Share Photos & Videos from Your Google Glass to Facebook & Twitter

The ability to see the world around you and instantly share that "vision" is something that makes Google Glass great for everyday use. No reason to pull out your phone to show off the amazing sushi plate you were just served—look at it, give a couple of quick taps and voice commands, and boom, your social network is salivating in jealousy.

How To: See Instant Translations of Foreign Text Using Google Glass

Google Glass is all about transforming the world around us with little to zero interaction from the wearer. Much of this is done using augmented reality—a live view of physical, real-world environments that are augmented by computer-generated input in the form of graphics, sights, and sounds.

News: Want to Explore with Google Glass? Now's Your Chance

With all signs pointing to a late-2014 release of Google Glass, the company is opening up their Explorer program to the masses. If you're a US resident who is at least 18 years old, sign up right now to be a part of the initiative. It seems as if Google is really expanding the program, as invites are being sent out in masses. I'm happy to report that I received mine this morning, as did a slew of others. So, ready to explore? Sign up, become as early adopter, and stay with us for all the late...

How To: Google Is Now Accepting Applications for Adventurous Glass Explorers: What Would You Do If You Had Glass?

Google Glass, the augmented reality head-mounted display, has sent ripples through the technology world ever since its inception in 2012—even warranting Time Magazine to recognize it as one of the "Best Inventions of the Year 2012". Today, Google announced that it’s now opening up an exclusive opportunity to become a Glass Explorer. What this entails is that if you're chosen to be a Glass Explorer, you'll have the opportunity to purchase one Glass device, long before it becomes available to t...

How To: Ingress, Google's Awesome New Mind-Hacking AR Game for Android Phones Now in Beta!

Google has just launched a new revolutionary augmented reality game for Android called Ingress. Their new mobile game centers around the fight for control of the minds of everyone here on Earth. It's a freaking worldwide fight—from your smartphone! While augmented reality in is nothing new in the smartphone gaming world, it has never seen the likes of this. With an almost Halo-like storytelling, Ingress seeks to bring out gamers all across the globe to perform physical activities by transform...

News: Augmented Reality Cinema App Takes You to the Movies—in Real World Locations

The yet-to-be released Augmented Reality Cinema app is sure to make avid movie fans across the world drool. The concept is genius and appears to be quite seamless as well: Simply install the app on your iPhone, take a stroll through your city (supported cities have not yet been released, but the video below shows London), and aim your phone at various locations to view movie scenes that have been previously shot there.

How To: Hold a Building in Your Hand

Aaron Betsky, director of the Cincinnati Art Museum and previous director of the Netherlands Institute of Architecture, reports on the world's first postage stamp to employ augmented reality. Dutch advertising agency Gummo, the NIA and the Dutch postal service teamed up to present five unbuilt models by different Dutch architecture studios in 3D form. When held in front of a webcam, the illusion of a 3D building is projected in your hand. By slowly moving the stamp, you can experience the vir...

News: Kinect Hack Reveals 'X-Ray' Vision

ProjectKinectMagicMirror combines augmented reality and CT-scan imagery to create a virtual "X-ray machine." Another amazing Microsoft Kinect hack to add to the vault. The ingenuity is infectious... Get inspired. Make-your-own.

News: Air Guitar + Kinect Hack = Pure Awesomeness

Thanks to Microsoft’s XBOX 360 motion-detecting system, Kinect, the world is becoming a play place for sci-fi style virtual reality. One of the latest hacks demonstrates the next best thing to regular old air guitar... virtual reality air guitar: Artist Chris O'Shea explains how it works:

News: 'Diminished Reality' App Does Augmented Reality in Reverse

Coming soon to an Android device near you: Diminished Reality! What's Diminished Reality? A lot like Augmented Reality, really, but with one big difference: Where AR giveth, insinuating virtual elements into a live representation of the real world, Diminished Reality taketh away, hiding actually-existing objects within a live feed.

How To: Ever Wonder How it Feels to Get Shot?

WWF's latest campaign uses augmented reality to raise awareness for the endangered Siberian tiger by demonstrating how it "feels" to be hunted down and shot. Created by Leo Burnett Moscow, thousands of special AR t-shirts featuring the tiger were printed and distributed to stores in Moscow. Each time the wearer passes in front of a "special video mirror" (re: web cam), a bloody shooting animation is triggered.

News: To Live in Augmented Reality Land

What if everything in life was controlled by augmented reality? Keiichi Matsuda imagines: "The architecture of the contemporary city is no longer simply about the physical space of buildings and landscape, more and more it is about the synthetic spaces created by the digital information that we collect, consume and organise; an immersive interface may become as much part of the world we inhabit as the buildings around us.

News: Futuristic Flavor-Changing Meta Cookie

Like a scene from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, this high-tech cookie offers 7 different flavors. The University of Tokyo's Tajuki Narumi and team presented the Wonka inspired augmented reality flavor-changing cookie at this year's SIGGRAPH computer graphics and animation conference in Los Angeles.

News: Augmented Reality to Cure Cockroach Phobias

Creepy crawlers. I'd say I'm not an extremely girly-girl. But (much to my embarrassment) bugs still have the capacity to make me shriek. Solution? A new study suggests that augmented reality could be used to cure cockroach phobia.

HowTo: Make Augmented Reality Cookies

Designer Mike Clare (of my own alma mater, RISD) has extended the augmented reality mania (1, 2, 3) to baked goods. Thanks to the crowd and Josh Delcore at AR World for the find. Here's how it works, via Design Boom:

News: Augmented Reality Contact Lenses with Terminator Vision

Remember, in the Terminator movies, when Arnold's field of vision is superimposed with all sorts of data? Sci-fi writer Vernor Vinge also described electronic contact lenses, technology that "projects" information right before the eyes.

News: Augmented Reality Tattoo—Holographic Skin Art

Another innovative use of augmented reality - we've seen transparent walls, t-shirts that play Rock, Paper, Scissors, an iPhone operated video game drone; and now, a tattoo that comes to life. Just tattoo a simple "barcode", point a webcam at it, and a flying animated dragon will appear, hovering.

News: Futuristic 'Transparent Walls' Could Prevent Accidents

More augmented reality fun (Rock Paper Scissors Tee, Video Game Drone) and another peak into our sci-fi future.

News: Play Rock Paper Scissors... Against Your T-Shirt

Leave it to the Swedes to come up with this incredibly novel idea (a country that seems to constantly produce culture that sits at the pinnacle of hipness- in terms of design, fashion, and music).